As with many blogs I read, I have absolutely no idea how I stumbled across Chelsea's blog, The New Wifestyle. Zero clue. I do know that about a week after finding her blog, suddenly she and her husband showed up in a picture in my Toastmasters magazine and I thought that was the weirdest/funniest sign from the universe ever (her husband WON the Toastmasters world championship... yes like WON PUBLIC SPEAKING IN GENERAL. No big deal. Hence why they were in the magazine).

So anyway my love affair with Chelsea and her blog was officially born. She blogs about empowering women in their relationships/marriages and also just living your life to the best you can. She is incredibly motivating and REAL and I love that she shares some really deep thoughts/struggles with her readers (ex. Real Talk: When My Confidence is Low) but also has absolutely hilarious posts (ex. 7 Slightly Inappropriate Valentine's Day Cards). Also she hates capital letters so I left her answers in all lower case to more accurately represent her voice :)

1. I LOVE learning tips & tricks that can help me to save more money. What is the best financial tip you’ve ever heard?

the best financial tip i've heard is that you can always save a little bit and you can always give a little bit! now that my husband and i are becoming more money conscious and we have some big goals ahead in terms of finances, the biggest tip i usually hear is 'diversify!' we are working on that now...(both the understanding of what the heck that means and then doing it!)

2. What is your proudest financial moment?

i can distinctly remember having moved from colorado to oregon, where we live now, and sitting outside with my then-fiance, feeling so stressed about money. i was in graduate school for social work and he was working all these crazy odd jobs to try to make ends meet (i'm talking espresso machine demo guy/passing out samples of food/even lord voldemort at a movie premier)!

ed. note: I am including this picture here so that you can see Chelsea + her husband, Ryan, and now you can more accurately try to imagine him dressing as Voldemort hahaha

we were down to our last $84 in our bank account and considering getting on food stamps. we were stressed and embarrassed that money wasn't coming in and we couldn't make ends meet. even though we were down to our last $84, my husband handed a homeless man on the street a $10 bill.

i panicked because that $10 could have bought us milk, eggs, bread and a donut! my now-husband understood that the more you give, the more you get and we still had enough to help someone else get food. after this, we started splitting our money up into 4 accounts, with 10% always going into a 'good causes.' good causes to us is a separate account to be used to donate to non-profits, randomly buy someone's groceries or dinner or leave $2 bills in random places for people to find.

3. Prioritizing your spending so that you spend money on things that truly make you happy is something that I think is SO important. What are some things that make you ridiculously happy and you feel zero guilt spending money on?

i'm getting better with the whole 'guilt' thing but one of the things i spend money on and feel less guilty about is travel! that's actually one of the 4 accounts that we have in addition to 'good causes' is travel (the other two are 'savings' and 'everyday money').

traveling is so important to both myself and my husband so we work hard not to spend money often on new clothes or things for the home because we'd rather be on a boat in thailand!

4. On the flip side, what things do you try NOT to spend money on?

we try not to spend money on house decorations, those adorable things that call out to you at target but you don't really need! how do they make so many cutely patterned things?! we also limit how much we spend on clothes unless we need new threads for an event or speaking engagement.

we do love a good happy hour and living in portland, we have a plethora of choices. we do like to indulge in going out every once in a while but limit eating out with friends or spending money out because again, we'd rather be on that boat!

5. I’m big on setting financial goals. I think it’s hard to progress in our financial life if we aren’t really sure what we’re working towards. What are your current financial goals?

oh money. i am working on fixing my relationship with money because i have a ton a mental blocks around it. i felt very conditioned while immersed in social work that i should never expect to make much money and i'll always work for a non-profit. now our lives look very different as we embark on the journey of entrepreneurship.

my personal goal this year is to make $60,000 (please note that i deleted and rewrote that statement 5 times before allowing it to stay). that is a HUGE number for me and i'm not exactly sure where all of it will come from but i need to get comfortable with believing i can make that amount, me, chelsea!

I LOVE that she set a financial goal for herself this year! As a fellow business owner I know it's super scary to say that kind of thing out loud (and makes me nervous thinking about setting one of my own, ahh!) so I appreciate her sharing that with us :)

Do you have a 'good causes' savings account like Chelsea? Or a 'travel' account?

I am a huge fan of having separate accounts for different savings goals. I particularly like the 'good causes' account-- I like the idea of money automatically being deposited there from your paycheck! I feel like half the battle in charitable giving is removing that money from your checking account when you just want to spend it on things for yourself :)